[Aratlithiel]

OK, everyone - we're talking about a man who was born in 1892. I stand by my earlier statement that he simply could not be expected to be capable of writing a female character who would have weathered the feminist storms of recent years and still remained attractive to female readers in today's society. Even female characters written by female authors contemporary to Tolkien are not women that would have stood up to today's standards. Jane Austen and Lara Ingalls-Wilder wrote strong female characters for their times, but those characters would still be considered lacking by today's standards.

I don't believe any female character written in the context of Tolkien's times could possibly have avoided the weaknesses inflicted by the prejudices the writer HAD to have had concerning women in leadership roles. I don't think a woman in the fellowship would necessarily have had problems with mooning over the men or with 'monthly' problems, but that the author couldn't help but write her that way - he would have to have given her many of the weaknesses that a man born in 1892 would have certainly believed women to have. Is that something we really want to have to deal with in today's times?

Considering all of that - it's my personal belief that it's better that no woman was written in so that I don't have the problem of avoiding one of my favorite past-times (which is, of course, re-reading LotR) simply because I can't stand the way the female is written.

Again - any change in the make-up of the fellowship would have made the end product DIFFERENT. I don't even want to think about that!